Corning has announced plans to start providing gadget manufacturers with Lotus …

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Corning, the developers of Gorilla Glass, announced the launch of a new display material named Lotus Glass for use with LCD and OLED screens today in a press release. The company says Lotus Glass has more "thermal and dimensional stability," which will allow it to better withstand the process of attaching high-resolution displays and implementing “tighter design rules.”

LCD glass substrates can require intense heating and cooling cycles to create screens, particularly for higher-resolution displays, Corning says. Lotus Glass has a higher annealing point than Gorilla Glass, meaning more heat is required for the material to relax internal stresses and forces.

Because Lotus Glass can withstand heat better, it’s in less danger of warping or sagging while “advanced backplanes” are applied (backplanes on screens contain the circuits that control the pixels on the screen). Very hot temperatures aren’t required to make nice displays—for instance, AMOLED displays can use low-temperature (150ºC) poly-silicone as a backplane—but more resilient glass could reduce the current rate of screen imperfections.

According to Corning, Lotus Glass will allow for screens with “higher resolution and faster response times.” We’re not sure it's just the Gorilla Glass that is holding these specs back on the current crop of smartphones and tablets, but every little bit helps. Corning did not respond to requests for comment on which manufacturers, if any, it has locked down for Lotus Glass contracts, but its press release states that the glass “has been qualified and is in production.”

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Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston